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USS Langley (CV-1)
  • 1942

USS Langley (CV-1)

First United States Navy aircraft carrier

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Photo: U.S. Navy photo 80-G-460108 · Commons · Public domain · Resized

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USS Langley (CV-1/AV-3) was the United States Navy's first aircraft carrier, converted in 1920 from the collier USS Jupiter , and also the US Navy's first turbo-electric-powered ship. Langley was named after Samuel Langley, an American aviation pioneer. She was the sole member of her class to be rebuilt as a carrier. Conversion of another collier was planned but canceled when the Washington Naval Treaty required the cancellation of the partially built Lexington-class battlecruisers Lexington and Saratoga, freeing up their hulls for conversion into aircraft carriers. Following another conversion to a seaplane tender, Langley saw service in World War II. On 27 February 1942, while ferrying a cargo of USAAF P-40s to Java, she was attacked by nine twin-engine Japanese bombers of the Japanese 21st and 23rd naval air flotillas and so badly damaged that she had to be scuttled by her escorts.

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Image: U.S. Navy photo 80-G-460108, Public domain · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0